A Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest held in Latest York City Sunday took town and the web by storm, each due to its premise and the crowds it drew, but in addition due to transient appearance of the actual Chalamet.
The arrival of the actual Chalamet was a surprise. But the general response to the farcical event was not.
“Let’s just say I definitely have my finger on the heart beat of culture,” said organizer and YouTuber Anthony Po tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Po has been a content creator for about seven years, and briefly worked for MrBeast last yr, before deciding to focus full time on his own YouTube channel, which has near two million followers and is stuffed with creative stunts. The stunts include Po’s decision to eat a jar of cheeseballs in front of crowds in Union Square while masked, earning him the moniker of Cheeseball Man, a type of quasi Latest York superhero status and further videos.
After dreaming up future stunts, Po landed on the concept of the lookalike contest to be held in Washington Square Park with a $50 money prize. The event was advertised throughout Latest York on a series of flyers (he hired a flyer guy, who also has his finger on the heart beat of when and where to flyer), in addition to a Partiful invite, which drew hundreds of RSVPs. Partiful also ended up sponsoring a part of the event, including the $50 money prizes that were ultimately given out to every entrant.
Po hosted the event, wearing a top hat and tux, which began in Washington Square Park, but was then forced to maneuver by police to a close-by park (with one attendee arrested) because the variety of attendees surged. Many look-alikes were interviewed onstage about their plans with Kylie Jenner, Chalamet’s rumored girlfriend, in addition to their French proficiency. In the long run, Miles Mitchell, a look-alike dressed as Willy Wonka, took first place.
Po spoke with THR on Monday in regards to the reason for hosting the event, the fallout and what could also be next.
Miles Mitchell, 21, winner of the Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest held near Washington Square Park, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in Latest York.
Stefan Jeremiah/AP Images
Why a Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest?
I’m in a stint of just attempting to do public stunts, like performance art type stuff. I feel it’s really funny, and I feel that quite a lot of creators straight away aren’t really creating anything. They’re just type of commentary channels in a weird way. So me and Paige [his producer and assistant] just sit around all day and all day and take into consideration like, what can be fun? What would get people talking? Healthful fun things which can be free for people to gawk at and tell their grandkids about. And other people at all times joke, I appear like Timothée Chalamet. They call me “Less hot Timothée Chalamet,” so we desired to host a lookalike competition. And the unique plan was for me to enter and us to rig it. But because it got larger, we’re like, ‘That is type of just larger than me,” so we wanted it to be only a fun, healthful thing for town.
It looks like there have been tons of of individuals attending yesterday. Was that what you expected?
Legally, I should probably say no, but let’s just say I definitely have my finger on the heart beat of culture, and I’m very confident in my ability to hold up like 10 flyers and get 10,000 people to indicate as much as a location.
Did you already know the actual Timothée would show up?
We knew he knew about it because we had some friends who worked on his latest movie. I might have put quite a lot of money on him not showing up due to how unsafe it’s for Timothée Chalamet being at a Timothée Chalamet lookalike meetup. It’s a shame. I actually wanted him to compete, nevertheless it was so hectic that he couldn’t, after all.
And the police broke up the primary event in Washington Square Park?
So what happened with the police, to start with, they were just attempting to break up the crowds. It was only a meetup, and we told law enforcement, like “Listen, we’re willing to cooperate. You’ve got to allow us to run this thing.” And I feel because they were being so law enforcement, right? That’s their job to be bad at communicating and shut people down. So, yeah, I mean, we got a $500 effective. I’ll take that 10,000 times. I don’t think I’m going to get any court summons, but when me and my team do, we’ll lawyer up harder than they are going to.
What’s the effective for? Not having a permit?
It says, “Hosting an unauthorized costume contest” It’s pathetic, but I’ll take that 1,000,000 times over. The entire event cost well over $4,000 bucks. So I’ll take a $500 effective.
What was the price?
Labor. I had three PAs. I flew one in all the judges out, paid for food for everyone. Camera operators, the trophy itself was $250. And we needed to get a rush order too, since it was a final minute thing.
It also looked like one in all the Timothée Chalamet lookalikes got arrested?
There’s one individual that got arrested, and I’m talking to him and gonna be paying his legal fees and all that great things. A cop got here up from behind him and tried to, like, usher him out. The guy was like, “Don’t touch me.” And the cop was like, “You must leave.”
What did you make of the chaos?
The individuals who went, they wanted the chaos, they wanted it to be silly and see Timothées and have a good time and discuss it with their friends. They weren’t on the lookout for this beautifully organized pageant show. I don’t think that folks wish to go an event like that costs $40,000 to host, and everybody gets charged $40. It’s too formal. It’s not nearly as good of a story.
I heard there was also a dating aspect component of the competition, where each Timothée Chalamet revealed whether or not they were single or not.
That was one thing we were talking about beforehand that’d be really funny. My weird pipe dream is I would like a pair to fulfill at this event and find yourself getting married. So we’ll see if it happens. Gotta give it a pair years
You’ve done other events like this then?
I’ve not done lookalike contests. I ate a jar of cheese balls in front of three,000 people and have become like a Latest York City superhero. I’m actually fighting a man next month because one other super villain popped up and was calling me out. It’s all very silly.
Once you say you’re fighting…
I’m boxing him. It’s a sanctioned boxing match in like two-and-a-half weeks. Their name is Cornhead Killer.
Is that this the largest thing you’ve done to date?
I’d say that is the largest per capita. But I’ve definitely done more essential things in my profession, needless to say, like more journalistic stuff and larger videos that reach more people. I infiltrated a cult one time, and that has probably more longevity and more views than this can do for me.
Is the goal with all of those to make YouTube videos?
It depends. Cheeseball Man became way cooler than what I presume to be a YouTube video. So I held back on revealing it was me for about 4 months. After which people kept making exposed videos. And it became an entire thing, and folks were like, commenting on every post I made, being like, “I do know you’re. You’re Anthony Po.” So then I got here clean. For this one, our plan is to drop a video on the whole event inside the following few days. And, obviously we’ve greater than press does, because we’ve the way it began, and the behind the scenes, and the entire why it became a thing. Again, we don’t even care if people watch it. We already succeeded. We did our job. But obviously the YouTube video must go up so we are able to make cash.
Do you have got different kinds of events coming up?
There’s a pair planned and scheduled. But I would like to be certain that people don’t realize it’s me, so it doesn’t lose its charm.
I also saw something floating around social media about an upcoming Jeremy Allen White lookalike contest. Are you doing that one too?
No, I’m not. I don’t wish to return to the scene of the crime, if that is sensible. I feel like I normally host these events, after which copycats pop up, and I allow them to do it and I move on. So I’m not behind it. I’m sure the parks department will likely be attempting to contact me and send me a stop and desist, but I actually have nothing to do with it.
